The Ocean City Police Department has issued a warning to local businesses to be on the look our for counterfeit currency. The warning follows two instances this year; one in late April, where two forged 50 dollar bills and one forged hundred were seized, and second on June 4, where two suspects were taken into custody following an attempt to pass off two fake hundred dollar bills. In the latter incident, the bills had matching serial numbers and were marked "for motion picture use only," Ocean City Police reported.

Public information officer for the Ocean City Police Department Lindsay Richard commented on the instances.

"These were two separate, unrelated cases that used different kinds of counterfeit bills," Richard said. "For the one in April, the counterfeiters had taken smaller denomination bills and bleached them, and then printed them higher. In the second case, which is something we've seen in other places on the Eastern Shore, they were using bills that were clearly marked 'for motion picture use only'".

In addition to the two bills seized on June 4, police reported a drug investigation the that night resulted in the seizure of several counterfeit hundred dollar bills. It is unclear whether the prop cash incident and the bills seized in the drug investigation were related.

Richard noted that prop bills, while clearly marked, can easily be passed off as real cash.

"Even though they are marked as movie cash, they do feel very real in the hand, they have the feel of real cash," Richard said. "If someone is handed the bill and doesn't look closely at it, it can be easily mistaken for real cash."

While Richard noted that other instances of prop cash being passed off has happened across the Eastern Shore, possession of prop money is not illegal, so long as the person does not attempt to use it for purchases or exchange it for real currency.

"It's completely legal to have currency made for movie purposes," Richard said. "It is clearly marked, and so long as you're not trying to pass it off as real money, it's totally okay to have."

However, Ocean City Police stated that counterfeiters employ a variety of tactics in creating forgeries that are nearly indistinguishable from their authentic counterpart. These include chemical treatments, bleaching and reprinting.

The Ocean City police department has noted a series of red flags that could denote counterfeit currency. These include people using large denomination bills to purchase small items, as counterfeiters often look to exchange fake currency for real cash. Second, authentic currency is made from rag paper, which has a softer feel then traditional paper and a slight roughness. If the bill feels differently in the hand than normal cash, there is a chance it is counterfeit.

The police also urge businesses to check for identical serial numbers, or lack of color changing ink in the top right corner of bills in denominations higher than $10. Authentic bills will have a watermark that shifts from copper to green, as well as one that appears on both sides of the bill when held up to the light.